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"git-diff -p :/anything" always segfaults

Subject: "git-diff -p :/anything" always segfaults

## tl;dr

7 messages between Mar 11, 2007 and Mar 12, 2007.

replies: 6people: 4as markdown or json

Jim Meyering· Mar 11, 2007, 18:49 UTC · lore

I like the idea of the new ':/<oneline prefix>' notation, and gave it a try, but all I could get was a segfault. It was dereferencing a NULL commit list. Fix below. With it, this example now works:

$ mkdir .j; cd .j; touch f $ (git-init; git-add f; git-commit -mc f; echo x >f; git-commit -md f)>/dev/null $ git-diff -p :/c :/d

diff --git a/f b/f
index e69de29..587be6b 100644
--- a/f
+++ b/f
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+x

Signed-off-by: Jim Meyering <jim@meyering.net>
---
 sha1_name.c |    2 +-
 1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-)

diff --git a/sha1_name.c b/sha1_name.c
index 31812d3..6b6270b 100644
--- a/sha1_name.c
+++ b/sha1_name.c
@@ -617,7 +617,7 @@ int get_sha1_oneline(const char *prefix, unsigned char *sha1)
 	for_each_ref(handle_one_ref, &list);
 	for (l = list; l; l = l->next)
 		commit_list_insert(l->item, &backup);
-	while ((commit = pop_most_recent_commit(&list, ONELINE_SEEN))) {
+	while (list && (commit = pop_most_recent_commit(&list, ONELINE_SEEN))) {
 		char *p;
 		parse_object(commit->object.sha1);
 		if (!commit->buffer || !(p = strstr(commit->buffer, "\n\n")))
--
1.5.0.3.316.gbd1fc
Johannes Schindelin· Mar 11, 2007, 19:08 UTC · re: Jim Meyering · lore

Re: "git-diff -p :/anything" always segfaults

Hi,
On Sun, 11 Mar 2007, Jim Meyering wrote:
> I like the idea of the new ':/<oneline prefix>' notation, and gave it a 
> try, but all I could get was a segfault.

Thanks. I did not realize that it did not work correctly, since the pager hid the segfault.

Ciao, Dscho

Linus Torvalds· Mar 11, 2007, 20:25 UTC · re: Jim Meyering · lore

Re: "git-diff -p :/anything" always segfaults

On Sun, 11 Mar 2007, Jim Meyering wrote:
>
> I like the idea of the new ':/<oneline prefix>' notation, and gave it
> a try, but all I could get was a segfault.  It was dereferencing a NULL
> commit list.  Fix below.  With it, this example now works:
The fix is correct, but not complete.
> -	while ((commit = pop_most_recent_commit(&list, ONELINE_SEEN))) {
> +	while (list && (commit = pop_most_recent_commit(&list, ONELINE_SEEN))) {
The old code was broken, but the new one isn't much better.

"pop_most_recent_commit()" simply doesn't work that way. It *never* returns NULL. So having it as part of a while-loop was buggy to begin with, and you fixed the test, but the thing is, it should just look like

	while (list) {
		struct commit *commit;
		commit = pop_most_recent_commit(&list, ONELINE_SEEN);
		..

and the "pop_most_recent_commit()" simply shouldn't be part of the conditional at all.

Alternatively, we could just change the semantics, and have it return NULL when the list is empty. That would probably be fine too, but then the old code was correct.

Hmm?
		Linus
Junio C Hamano· Mar 11, 2007, 20:58 UTC · re: Linus Torvalds · lore

Re: "git-diff -p :/anything" always segfaults

Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> writes:
Show 25 quoted lines
> On Sun, 11 Mar 2007, Jim Meyering wrote:
>>
>> I like the idea of the new ':/<oneline prefix>' notation, and gave it
>> a try, but all I could get was a segfault.  It was dereferencing a NULL
>> commit list.  Fix below.  With it, this example now works:
>
> The fix is correct, but not complete.
>
>> -	while ((commit = pop_most_recent_commit(&list, ONELINE_SEEN))) {
>> +	while (list && (commit = pop_most_recent_commit(&list, ONELINE_SEEN))) {
>
> The old code was broken, but the new one isn't much better.
>
> "pop_most_recent_commit()" simply doesn't work that way. It *never* 
> returns NULL. So having it as part of a while-loop was buggy to begin 
> with, and you fixed the test, but the thing is, it should just look like
>
> 	while (list) {
> 		struct commit *commit;
>
> 		commit = pop_most_recent_commit(&list, ONELINE_SEEN);
> 		..
>
> and the "pop_most_recent_commit()" simply shouldn't be part of the 
> conditional at all.

That's what I did in my tentative commit based on Jim's patch (except "commit" is also used to determine the return value from the function).

Linus Torvalds· Mar 12, 2007, 16:14 UTC · re: Junio C Hamano · lore

Re: "git-diff -p :/anything" always segfaults

On Sun, 11 Mar 2007, Junio C Hamano wrote:
Show 17 quoted lines
> >
> > "pop_most_recent_commit()" simply doesn't work that way. It *never* 
> > returns NULL. So having it as part of a while-loop was buggy to begin 
> > with, and you fixed the test, but the thing is, it should just look like
> >
> > 	while (list) {
> > 		struct commit *commit;
> >
> > 		commit = pop_most_recent_commit(&list, ONELINE_SEEN);
> > 		..
> >
> > and the "pop_most_recent_commit()" simply shouldn't be part of the 
> > conditional at all.
> 
> That's what I did in my tentative commit based on Jim's patch
> (except "commit" is also used to determine the return value from
> the function).
Your version is *also* buggy.
And the bug is exactly that return value.
You simply cannot do it that way. You do
	...
	commit = pop_most_recent_commit(&list, ONELINE_SEEN);
	if (!commit)
		break;
	...

which is totally broken and pointless, and more importantly, *exactly* because you use "commit" outside the loop, it's broken.

It will now return the last commit it ever saw, whether that commit matches the buffer or not. Because "commit" will *never* be set to NULL ever again after the initial assignment!

The fact is, if you don't do it the way I described:
	while (list) {
		struct commit *commit;
		commit = pop_most_recent_commit(&list, ONELINE_SEEN);
		...

you will almost certainly have a bug. Why? Because the return value of "pop_most_recent_commit()" simply *makes*no*sense* outside the loop. It's that simple.

Outside the loop, you have to have a *different* return value, namely the one that matches. Which may be NULL. Something that pop_most_recent_commit() simply never returns!

So I repeat my suggestion:
 - either use the sequence above
 - or change the semantics of "pop_most_recent_commit()" to return NULL if 
   the list is empty.

Considering that there's now been two totally broken versions of this loop, with the exact same bug, I'm inclined to say that you should just change "pop_most_recent_commit()" instead, and then change the loop back to its original form of "while ((commit = pop_..) != NULL) {"

Otherwise, please apply something like this, which also fixes the return value. We should return -1 on error!

We should add a test with
	git log :/hjashjs

or similar. It's supposed to return an error ("fatal: ambiguous argument ':/hjashjs': unknown revision or path not in the working tree.")

		Linus
 [ Same return value rules as for the kernel and for system calls, either:
    - 0/1 for "false/true", where _1_ is success, and 0 is "false".
    - negative/0 for "error/no-error", where _0_ is success, and negative 
      is a failure.
   but not some mixture with 1 being failure! ]
---
diff --git a/sha1_name.c b/sha1_name.c
index 6b8b67b..40dd2d1 100644
--- a/sha1_name.c
+++ b/sha1_name.c
@@ -602,10 +602,10 @@ static int handle_one_ref(const char *path,
  */
 
 #define ONELINE_SEEN (1u<<20)
-int get_sha1_oneline(const char *prefix, unsigned char *sha1)
+static int get_sha1_oneline(const char *prefix, unsigned char *sha1)
 {
 	struct commit_list *list = NULL, *backup = NULL, *l;
-	struct commit *commit = NULL;
+	int retval = -1;
 
 	if (prefix[0] == '!') {
 		if (prefix[1] != '!')
@@ -619,6 +619,7 @@ int get_sha1_oneline(const char *prefix, unsigned char *sha1)
 		commit_list_insert(l->item, &backup);
 	while (list) {
 		char *p;
+		struct commit *commit;
 
 		commit = pop_most_recent_commit(&list, ONELINE_SEEN);
 		if (!commit)
@@ -628,13 +629,14 @@ int get_sha1_oneline(const char *prefix, unsigned char *sha1)
 			continue;
 		if (!prefixcmp(p + 2, prefix)) {
 			hashcpy(sha1, commit->object.sha1);
+			retval = 0;
 			break;
 		}
 	}
 	free_commit_list(list);
 	for (l = backup; l; l = l->next)
 		clear_commit_marks(l->item, ONELINE_SEEN);
-	return commit == NULL;
+	return retval;
 }
 
 /*
Linus Torvalds· Mar 12, 2007, 16:22 UTC · re: Linus Torvalds · lore

Re: "git-diff -p :/anything" always segfaults

On Mon, 12 Mar 2007, Linus Torvalds wrote:
> 
> Otherwise, please apply something like this, which also fixes the return 
> value. We should return -1 on error!
Btw, I didn't remove the 
	if (!commit)
		break;

but I should have. It doesn't actually matter (since it will never trigger), but it adds to the confusion around pop_most_recent_commit.

		Linus

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